--- title: Five Lesser-Known WWII Guns description: "A LOT of guns were used during WWII, and that's putting it mildly.\n\nMany of these are VERY well known and understood too, having penetrated the historical zeitgeist to such a degree that they have become as famous as any of the conflict's leading generals or politicians. But for every P08 Luger or M1 Garand, that has had book after book written about it, and featured in countless movies and video games, there exists another 10 firearms that have received but a fraction of that attention – and thus remain unknown to all but the keenest of collectors and enthusiasts.\n\nToday, we shall be doing our little bit to shine a light into this darkness, by telling you all about both the history and designs of five of the conflict's lesser-known guns – let's begin!\n\n## The Orița M1941\n\nFirst, we have the **Orița M1941**, a submachine gun that was designed by one Captain Marin Orița of the Romanian Army's Military Technical Corps in 1941, and later entered service in 1943. It was designed as part of an effort by the Romanians to reduce dependence upon imported specialist weaponry, particularly from Germany, and instead begin producing such weapons domestically. Orița was particularly inspired by German and Italian submachine guns, both which had a REAL reputation for quality in Romania; put his gun beside a German MP41 and an Italian Model 38 for example – and you can see the inspiration quite clearly.\n\nAs for how it ACTUALLY worked, it used a simple blowback cycling system, i.e., one that uses the pressure from a fired cartridge to actuate the bolt and cycle the action. It also fired from an open bolt, meaning that the bolt was held to the rear upon cocking, rather than a closed bolt, as in a system in which the bolt returns forward upon cocking. So full operation would consist of cocking it by pulling the bolt to the rear, where it would be held by a sear, pulling the trigger would then lower this sear, allowing the bolt to fly forwards under spring pressure, where it would pick up a round from the magazine, push it forward, and strike it with its firing pin immediately after pushing it into the chamber, discharging the round.\n\nGases from the burnt propellant in the cartridge would then push the bolt back to the rear, where it either does it all over again if the trigger is still held, or caught by the sear if it is not. It's basically the exact same way as more famous submachine guns such as the MP40 or M3A1 'Grease Gun' operate except, unlike those, the Orița was also select-fire, as it had a mode that forcibly raised the sear following depression – thus stopping it from continuing to fire even if the trigger was still depressed. Chiefly, this addition was due to the higher rate of fire of the Orița, 600(ish) rounds per minute compared to 500(ish) and 450(ish) in the MP40 and M3A1 respectively, which made it more difficult to 'hard skill' single shot fire it by simply quickly releasing your trigger finger.\n\nIt was pretty well received in its time. Romanian troops generally LOVED it, and even German troops who found one in their hands had no shortage of praise for its surprisingly well-built nature, intelligent design, and reliability. It wasn't perfect however, and safety was a regular point of concern.\n\nThe majority of wartime produced models had a simple cross-bolt type safety up by the rear sight, and while this generally speaking did the job, it was not drop-safe, because a sufficient jolt could still loosen the bolt from the sear, where it would then fly forward under spring pressure, pick up a round, and then discharge it. But note, this flaw was VERY common on most open bolt submachine guns of the period – there's very few that wouldn't discharge if you threw them at the ground hard enough while cocked.\n\nAs for the rest of the gun's design, it had an adjustable rear sight with increments for out to 500 metres, something that was actually quite a thoughtful touch, as many of its contemporaries omitted such luxuries in favour of simple fixed sights; think the MP40, the Sten Gun, or even the otherwise quite fancy M1A1 Thompson as examples. For magazines, it used a proprietary 32-round double-stacked single feed magazine. By all accounts this magazine was pretty hardy – although its single feed nature supposedly made it a bit of a pain in the rear to load. As for the round that went into said magazine, that'd be 9×19mm Parabellum, the exact same as used in the MP40 and Sten Gun.\n\nBut because it was quite a well thought out and put together bit of kit, production was both expensive and slow, and further, it wasn't helped by Romania not 'exactly' being an industrial powerhouse in that period. As a result, production typically hovered in the 6-700 units per month sort of range. Further, it is unclear exactly how many were completed come the war's end, but we DO know that a little over 6,000 had been completed in October 1943, at which point mass production had been underway for a year.\n\nIf you want to see one for yourself, the National Military Museum Bucharest, perhaps unsurprisingly, has a few of them, and in fact, we can recommend a visit there from personal experience.\n\n## The Danuvia 39M/43M\n\nLet's stick with submachine guns now, and have a look at THIS, the **Danuvia 39M/43M**, which is of Hungarian origin. A fellow by the name of Pál Király designed it in the late 1930s, and it was heavily influenced by his work on other, earlier submachine guns such as the MKMO, which he had had a hand in developing whilst living in Switzerland and in the employ of SIG. It was produced by Danuvia, a Hungarian industrial giant, hence the name.\n\nDespite often being described as different guns, the 43M is actually just a variation of the original 39M, so for the purposes of this article, we will consider them one in the same; the 43M just had a folding metal stock instead of a fixed wooden one, a shortened barrel, and an ever so forward angled barrel, all of which were intended to make it more handy for paratroopers and mechanised infantry – don't worry too much about it.\n\nAs you can probably guess by the name, the original 39M entered service in 1939, a year or so before Hungary formally threw its lot in with the Axis powers, and it followed the Hungarian Army wherever it fought, i.e. mostly on the Eastern Front.\n\nAs for its design, just like the Orița we looked at last chapter, it was a blowback cycling open bolt design, so we won't retread old water by going back over that. What we will discuss however, is the cartridge it fired, because it was a major deviation from the norm, and actually quite a beastly choice: 9×25mm Mauser, and to see what we mean about this cartridge being bit of a unit, have a look at this picture of it besides 'normal' 9×19mm Parabellum, as fired by the Orița, the MP40, and the Sten.\n\nBut while powerful, this niche cartridge choice did prove to be a BIT of a problem late war when Axis supply lines started collapsing, as actually getting it to the front became a tad difficult, and often left 39M equipped troops empty magged… but eh, what you gonna do, it was late in the war, NOTHING was ideal for Axis militaries by that time.\n\nBeyond that, according to most sources, both the 39M and its later 43M variation were generally well liked by the troops, with common compliments being its robustness, its reliability, and of course, the punch of its meaty cartridge.\n\nAs for how many of them were made, we have EXACT numbers for the 39M, and a ballpark figure for the 43M: 13,332 and 5,000(ish) respectively.\n\nCome late in the war, as things started going really, REALLY badly for the axis powers, Király also had a crack at designed a SUPER cut back variant he dubbed the 44M, which was to incorporate a much simpler action and no wood at all so that it could be pumped out of bomb-damaged factories at lightning pace. It was also intended to fire 9×19mm Parabellum, for reasons that we are sure are obvious to you, but with the Soviets pushing into Hungary that same year, Király only managed to make a few prototypes before being forced to abandon the project.\n\nAnd just like the Orița, a surprising amount of these actually survived the war and found their ways to museums for your viewing pleasure. Should you want to visit one, the easiest to reach is Budapest's Museum of Military History, and yes, once again we have a picture from our staffers previous visit.\n\n## The Armaguerra Mod. 39\n\nLet's mix things up a little now by having a look at a semi-automatic rifle, specifically this bad boy: the **Italian Armaguerra Model 39**. It was designed in 1938 by Gino and Mario Revelli, and upon its initial conception, it had the lofty expectations thrust upon it of becoming THE service rifle of the Italian Army, something that would have been a BIG deal indeed given that their then service rifle, the Carcano, was an old 19th century bolt-action design that didn't exactly put lead downrange at a rapid pace.\n\nInterestingly, this ambition wasn't a new one for Italy, as even before the big chin Fascist fella seized the reigns of power in 1922, they had experimented with faster firing rifles here and there, an example of which is the Cei-Rigotti, a select fire battle rifle from all the way back in 1890; obviously however, such experiments didn't really amount to much – hence the Carcano soldiering ever on.\n\nAnd as you have no doubt already have guessed, a similar fate befell the Model 39. It entered production in 1939 and continued to be produced until 1941, but owing to the poor state of Italian industry even at the best of times, it never entered mass manufacturing, and instead was only ever produced at an absolute trickle pace during this brief window. As for the exact size of said trickle, precise production figures are hard to come by, but we do know that come July 1942, the Army only had 100 in its ENTIRE inventory – and that was from an initial order of 10,000.\n\nAs for how it worked, it used a short recoil action – a mechanism where the barrel and bolt are moved backward together by the force of the recoil for a short distance after firing, and then separate, with the barrel stopping while the bolt or slide continues to the rear to complete the cycling process and put another round into battery.\n\nThat's pretty normal all things considered, and you'll find plenty of WWII vintage firearms that use that kind of action, although it tends to be pistols such as the M1911 or P38, semi-auto rifles that use it are MUCH rarer, with most from the period, such as the M1 Garand, Gewehr 43, and SVT-40, all using some form of gas-operated action instead – which use the propellent gas of a discharged cartridge to actuate a mechanical device that cycles the action.\n\nWhat is REALLY weird however is how you cock it, because its charging handle is also its front sling mount, so to charge it, rather than grabbing a handy dandy lever poking out the side and tugging on it, you instead must depress a locking button that normally keeps the sling mount locked in place, then yank it back using the sling – which opens the bolt. This is a REALLY bizarre way of doing it, and it also leads to the rifle having a totally flush receiver.\n\nThe rest of it, however, is pretty normal. It has a sight that is adjustable for ranges up to 500 metres, and feeds from normal Carcano clips that are inserted whole into the rifle and drop out of a slot in the bottom of the magazine when emptied. Using the same clips as a Carcano also meant that it used the same rounds, either 6.5×52mm or 7.35×51mm – with examples chambered for both having been made.\n\nAnd that's pretty much all there is to say about it, at least within the confines of this article. Sadly, no one on the team has ever come across one of these in a museum, so we have no recommendations of where you can definitely see one for yourself – although, SUPPOSEDLY, the Carabinieri Police Museum in Rome has one, but we couldn't confirm this.\n\n## The MG13\n\nNext, we have the **MG13**, a German short recoil light machine gun made by taking the earlier Dreyse Model of 1918, a HEAVY water-cooled weapon, and, to simplify a bit, yanking all of the water-cooled gubbins off to make an air-cooled version. This was done in 1928, and two years later it was formally accepted into service with the Reichswehr, the Army of the Weimar Republic.\n\nIt was part of a clandestine effort to modernise German infantry equipment, which is exactly why it is the first gun we have looked at so far which doesn't have a name that (roughly) matches up with either its year of development, or its year of adoption. By calling it the MG13, the Germans reasoned that the victorious powers would look at their other weapons, such as the MG08 machine gun, which was adopted in 1908, and the G98 rifle, adopted all the way back in 1898, and just naturally write the MG13 off as an old pre-WWI machine gun of some kind; at least on the paperwork anyway – the countries in question weren't fools, they'd be well aware the second they took a look at one.\n\nIt soon found itself replaced by the MG34, a veritable Rolls Royce of a machine gun, and arguably the first EVER true general purpose machine gun in 1934 – which, incidentally, was also in development since before the Bad Moustache Man came to power in 1933; a happy little accident that just so happened to be perfectly timed for his rearming schemes.\n\nSo, in that case then, what gives? Just what is the MG13 doing on this list of lesser-known WWII guns since it was replaced before the war broke out?\n\nWell, it turns out that the Austrian armband enthusiast's rearmament plans needed such an insane amount of machine guns, that German industry simply couldn't keep up with the demand, and so, despite having long since been officially replaced, the MG13 soldiered on in service.\n\nInitially, this was with everyone, even frontline troops, who used it during the Invasions of both France and Poland. It was eventually kicked back to second line units however as Germany's war economy got into full gear, and greater numbers of the MG34, and later the MG42 became available. It was also used in the Panzer I light tank, where two of them formed its main armament, although, the Panzer I, and the MG13s inside of it, were all but gone from frontline service come 1941.\n\nAs for its design, the MG13 was actually a pretty smart bit of kit, incorporating several useful features to maximise its lethality on the battlefield. For starters, there was its 'double-crescent trigger,' which enabled both fully automatic and single shot firing from the exact same trigger, without the need to mess about with any switches or levers – just squeeze the top finger indentation and you'd only get a single shot, then move your finger down an inch and press down on the lower finger indentation and the MG13 would let rip and give it the business. And if you are wondering exactly what round it sent downrange, that'd be 7.92×57mm Mauser – the standard German rifle and machine gun round of both world wars.\n\nFurther to that, other smart, but less unique features included: an integrated folding bipod that made it both easier to transport and less likely to get snagged on things as it was moved around the battlefield, a carry handle on the top, so that a gunner could quickly get on their feet and grab it if they needed to scarper, a barrel that could be quickly swapped in combat to enable sustained fire without any water-cooling mechanism, and a folding stock – which was handy indeed if one was fighting up close and personal, and wished to 'Rambo it.'\n\nOne thing that was less smart however, given how the MG13 was made with sustained fire in mind, was the fact that it was magazine fed rather than belt fed. Given the fact that it used 25 round magazines, and had a rate of fire of 600(ish) rounds per minute, this would mean that if you kept your finger depressed on the lower trigger, it would empty a magazine in a mere 2.5 seconds, at which point firing would have to cease until a fresh one could be stuck in – although it did at least have a bolt hold open mechanism so that it didn't need to be re-cocked. Compare that to something belt fed like the MG34 that replaced it however, where if you were dug in and needed to lay down some heavy fire, you were able to simple attach multiple belts together and keep fire up to your heart's content (barring changing the barrel)… and you can see the problem.\n\nIf you want to know where you can see one of these, don't worry, despite being lesser known, they REALLY aren't rare – head to basically any half decent WWII or armaments museum and they'll probably have at least one knocking about.\n\n## The MP3008\n\nFor our final lesser-known weapon of WWII we have THIS, the **MP3008**, a German submachine gun produced right at the tail end of WWII. If you happen to be thinking this one looks just a tad familiar, don't worry, you have good reason for your suspicions, as it is a near direct copy of the British Sten, just with its magazine well rotated to be pointing downwards, rather than out to the side.\n\nThe rationale behind it was simple enough: the war was going really, REALLY badly for Germany, and as the walls began caving in, they needed something cheap and cheerful they could put into the hands of all of the old men and children that were being conscripted into the ranks of the Volkssturm; a militia that, to all intents and purposes, is roughly equivalent to the British Home Guard, which you are likely more familiar with, and if you aren't familiar with it, that means you've never seen the incredible classic British sitcom Dad's Army – and so consider watching it your homework for after this article! But we digress…\n\nStrictly speaking, the MP3008 was a Mauser weapon, as they were the ones who reversed engineered the Sten to create it in early 1945, but to describe it as a true 'Mauser weapon,' in the way we would say a K98K rifle, isn't quite correct. Because while the K98K was a Mauser design that had production outsourced in a way that saw STRICT quality controls to ensure that every rifle pumped out matched Mausers own in house standards, thus making it a moot point where it was actually made, the MP3008's blueprints were instead hurled at anyone who had a lathe going spare, with vague instructions to the extent of \"yeah whatever just make it go bang and pump it out we really don't care.\" We really do mean ANYONE too, with surviving records showing that everyone from local mechanics, through to enthusiast metal workers with a tool shed, were given orders to manufacture them.\n\nThis led to a HUGE variety in their appearance, with MP3008s documented over the years featuring everything from wooden stocks, to solid metal stocks, to wire metal stocks, to no stocks at all. Beyond just the stock however, they can also be found with pistol grips, normal Sten like grips, and sometimes even no clear grip at all. Really, any and every weird way you could think of making one of these was probably done at some point.\n\nAs for how it worked, it was blowback operated, which we are now VERY familiar with, and fired from an open bolt. It was chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum, the standard submachine gun round of the German military, just to keep its logistics nice and easy, and for this same reason, it also was designed to take standard 32 round MP40 box magazines. As for its rate of fire, most sources put it in the 450(ish) rounds per minute sort of range.\n\nUnfortunately, we ultimately have no idea how many of these were made. Due to the rushed and hap hazard nature of its production, the documentation needed to give full production figures was simply was never made in the first place, never mind surviving to this day. Most historians however, when pushed, will usually give a figure in the region of 10,000 or so.\n\nDespite this, a fair few survive, and typically, there is at least one in most western countries' BIG armaments museums. For example, we've seen one in the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, England – but unfortunately, did not take a picture to be able to show you.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- The Orița M1941 submachine gun was designed by Romania to reduce dependence on German imports.\n- The Danuvia 39M/43M submachine gun used a powerful but niche 9×25mm Mauser cartridge.\n- The Armaguerra Mod. 39 semi-automatic rifle had a unique charging handle integrated with the sling mount.\n- The MG13 light machine gun was initially used by German frontline troops due to high demand.\n- The MP3008 submachine gun was a rushed copy of the British Sten, produced by various manufacturers.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What is the Orița M1941?\n\nThe Orița M1941 is a submachine gun designed by Captain Marin Orița of the Romanian Army in 1941 and entered service in 1943. It was designed to reduce dependence on imported weapons and was inspired by German and Italian submachine guns.\n\n### How does the Orița M1941 operate?\n\nThe Orița M1941 uses a blowback cycling system with an open bolt. It fires by pulling the bolt to the rear, where it is held by a sear. Pulling the trigger releases the sear, allowing the bolt to fly forward, pick up a round, and discharge it. The gases from the fired cartridge push the bolt back to repeat the cycle.\n\n### What are the key features of the Danuvia 39M/43M?\n\nThe Danuvia 39M/43M is a Hungarian submachine gun designed by Pál Király. It uses a blowback cycling open bolt design and fires the 9×25mm Mauser cartridge. The 43M variant has a folding metal stock, shortened barrel, and a forward-angled barrel for paratroopers and mechanized infantry.\n\n### What is the Armaguerra Mod. 39?\n\nThe Armaguerra Mod. 39 is an Italian semi-automatic rifle designed in 1938 by Gino and Mario Revelli. It was intended to replace the Carcano bolt-action rifle but never entered mass production due to the poor state of Italian industry.\n\n### How does the Armaguerra Mod. 39 cock its bolt?\n\nThe Armaguerra Mod. 39 has a unique charging handle that doubles as the front sling mount. To cock the rifle, you depress a locking button and yank the sling mount back to open the bolt.\n\n### What is the MG13?\n\nThe MG13 is a German short recoil light machine gun developed in 1928 by modifying the Dreyse Model of 1918. It was designed to be an air-cooled version of the water-cooled Dreyse machine gun and was used extensively during the early years of WWII.\n\n### What are the unique features of the MG13?\n\nThe MG13 features a 'double-crescent trigger' for both fully automatic and single-shot firing, an integrated folding bipod, a carry handle, a quick-swap barrel, and a folding stock. It is magazine-fed with 25-round magazines and fires the 7.92×57mm Mauser round.\n\n### What is the MP3008?\n\nThe MP3008 is a German submachine gun produced at the end of WWII. It is a near-direct copy of the British Sten, with the magazine well rotated downward. It was designed to be cheap and quickly produced for the Volkssturm militia.\n\n### How was the MP3008 produced?\n\nThe MP3008 was produced in a rushed and haphazard manner, with blueprints given to anyone with a lathe. This led to a wide variety of appearances, including different stocks, grips, and overall designs.\n\n### What ammunition does the MP3008 use?\n\nThe MP3008 is chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum and uses standard 32-round MP40 box magazines. It has a rate of fire of approximately 450 rounds per minute.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original Side Projects video: Five Lesser-Known WWII Guns](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXdexlgnP3U)\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://sideprojects.pub/article/five-lesser-known-wwii-guns.md canonical: https://sideprojects.pub/article/five-lesser-known-wwii-guns datePublished: 2026-06-25 dateModified: 2026-06-25 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://sideprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Side Projects image: "https://media.sideprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/gXdexlgnP3U/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 67eb0efb8ca39e973658b2f9adc35156e28154b7fef6e607860f9656cf84c6e4 tokens: 5887 summaryUrl: https://sideprojects.pub/article/five-lesser-known-wwii-guns.md.summary.md --- A LOT of guns were used during WWII, and that's putting it mildly. Many of these are VERY well known and understood too, having penetrated the historical zeitgeist to such a degree that they have become as famous as any of the conflict's leading generals or politicians. But for every P08 Luger or M1 Garand, that has had book after book written about it, and featured in countless movies and video games, there exists another 10 firearms that have received but a fraction of that attention – and thus remain unknown to all but the keenest of collectors and enthusiasts. Today, we shall be doing our little bit to shine a light into this darkness, by telling you all about both the history and designs of five of the conflict's lesser-known guns – let's begin! ## The Orița M1941 First, we have the **Orița M1941**, a submachine gun that was designed by one Captain Marin Orița of the Romanian Army's Military Technical Corps in 1941, and later entered service in 1943. It was designed as part of an effort by the Romanians to reduce dependence upon imported specialist weaponry, particularly from Germany, and instead begin producing such weapons domestically. Orița was particularly inspired by German and Italian submachine guns, both which had a REAL reputation for quality in Romania; put his gun beside a German MP41 and an Italian Model 38 for example – and you can see the inspiration quite clearly. As for how it ACTUALLY worked, it used a simple blowback cycling system, i.e., one that uses the pressure from a fired cartridge to actuate the bolt and cycle the action. It also fired from an open bolt, meaning that the bolt was held to the rear upon cocking, rather than a closed bolt, as in a system in which the bolt returns forward upon cocking. So full operation would consist of cocking it by pulling the bolt to the rear, where it would be held by a sear, pulling the trigger would then lower this sear, allowing the bolt to fly forwards under spring pressure, where it would pick up a round from the magazine, push it forward, and strike it with its firing pin immediately after pushing it into the chamber, discharging the round. Gases from the burnt propellant in the cartridge would then push the bolt back to the rear, where it either does it all over again if the trigger is still held, or caught by the sear if it is not. It's basically the exact same way as more famous submachine guns such as the MP40 or M3A1 'Grease Gun' operate except, unlike those, the Orița was also select-fire, as it had a mode that forcibly raised the sear following depression – thus stopping it from continuing to fire even if the trigger was still depressed. Chiefly, this addition was due to the higher rate of fire of the Orița, 600(ish) rounds per minute compared to 500(ish) and 450(ish) in the MP40 and M3A1 respectively, which made it more difficult to 'hard skill' single shot fire it by simply quickly releasing your trigger finger. It was pretty well received in its time. Romanian troops generally LOVED it, and even German troops who found one in their hands had no shortage of praise for its surprisingly well-built nature, intelligent design, and reliability. It wasn't perfect however, and safety was a regular point of concern. The majority of wartime produced models had a simple cross-bolt type safety up by the rear sight, and while this generally speaking did the job, it was not drop-safe, because a sufficient jolt could still loosen the bolt from the sear, where it would then fly forward under spring pressure, pick up a round, and then discharge it. But note, this flaw was VERY common on most open bolt submachine guns of the period – there's very few that wouldn't discharge if you threw them at the ground hard enough while cocked. As for the rest of the gun's design, it had an adjustable rear sight with increments for out to 500 metres, something that was actually quite a thoughtful touch, as many of its contemporaries omitted such luxuries in favour of simple fixed sights; think the MP40, the Sten Gun, or even the otherwise quite fancy M1A1 Thompson as examples. For magazines, it used a proprietary 32-round double-stacked single feed magazine. By all accounts this magazine was pretty hardy – although its single feed nature supposedly made it a bit of a pain in the rear to load. As for the round that went into said magazine, that'd be 9×19mm Parabellum, the exact same as used in the MP40 and Sten Gun. But because it was quite a well thought out and put together bit of kit, production was both expensive and slow, and further, it wasn't helped by Romania not 'exactly' being an industrial powerhouse in that period. As a result, production typically hovered in the 6-700 units per month sort of range. Further, it is unclear exactly how many were completed come the war's end, but we DO know that a little over 6,000 had been completed in October 1943, at which point mass production had been underway for a year. If you want to see one for yourself, the National Military Museum Bucharest, perhaps unsurprisingly, has a few of them, and in fact, we can recommend a visit there from personal experience. ## The Danuvia 39M/43M Let's stick with submachine guns now, and have a look at THIS, the **Danuvia 39M/43M**, which is of Hungarian origin. A fellow by the name of Pál Király designed it in the late 1930s, and it was heavily influenced by his work on other, earlier submachine guns such as the MKMO, which he had had a hand in developing whilst living in Switzerland and in the employ of SIG. It was produced by Danuvia, a Hungarian industrial giant, hence the name. Despite often being described as different guns, the 43M is actually just a variation of the original 39M, so for the purposes of this article, we will consider them one in the same; the 43M just had a folding metal stock instead of a fixed wooden one, a shortened barrel, and an ever so forward angled barrel, all of which were intended to make it more handy for paratroopers and mechanised infantry – don't worry too much about it. As you can probably guess by the name, the original 39M entered service in 1939, a year or so before Hungary formally threw its lot in with the Axis powers, and it followed the Hungarian Army wherever it fought, i.e. mostly on the Eastern Front. As for its design, just like the Orița we looked at last chapter, it was a blowback cycling open bolt design, so we won't retread old water by going back over that. What we will discuss however, is the cartridge it fired, because it was a major deviation from the norm, and actually quite a beastly choice: 9×25mm Mauser, and to see what we mean about this cartridge being bit of a unit, have a look at this picture of it besides 'normal' 9×19mm Parabellum, as fired by the Orița, the MP40, and the Sten. But while powerful, this niche cartridge choice did prove to be a BIT of a problem late war when Axis supply lines started collapsing, as actually getting it to the front became a tad difficult, and often left 39M equipped troops empty magged… but eh, what you gonna do, it was late in the war, NOTHING was ideal for Axis militaries by that time. Beyond that, according to most sources, both the 39M and its later 43M variation were generally well liked by the troops, with common compliments being its robustness, its reliability, and of course, the punch of its meaty cartridge. As for how many of them were made, we have EXACT numbers for the 39M, and a ballpark figure for the 43M: 13,332 and 5,000(ish) respectively. Come late in the war, as things started going really, REALLY badly for the axis powers, Király also had a crack at designed a SUPER cut back variant he dubbed the 44M, which was to incorporate a much simpler action and no wood at all so that it could be pumped out of bomb-damaged factories at lightning pace. It was also intended to fire 9×19mm Parabellum, for reasons that we are sure are obvious to you, but with the Soviets pushing into Hungary that same year, Király only managed to make a few prototypes before being forced to abandon the project. And just like the Orița, a surprising amount of these actually survived the war and found their ways to museums for your viewing pleasure. Should you want to visit one, the easiest to reach is Budapest's Museum of Military History, and yes, once again we have a picture from our staffers previous visit. ## The Armaguerra Mod. 39 Let's mix things up a little now by having a look at a semi-automatic rifle, specifically this bad boy: the **Italian Armaguerra Model 39**. It was designed in 1938 by Gino and Mario Revelli, and upon its initial conception, it had the lofty expectations thrust upon it of becoming THE service rifle of the Italian Army, something that would have been a BIG deal indeed given that their then service rifle, the Carcano, was an old 19th century bolt-action design that didn't exactly put lead downrange at a rapid pace. Interestingly, this ambition wasn't a new one for Italy, as even before the big chin Fascist fella seized the reigns of power in 1922, they had experimented with faster firing rifles here and there, an example of which is the Cei-Rigotti, a select fire battle rifle from all the way back in 1890; obviously however, such experiments didn't really amount to much – hence the Carcano soldiering ever on. And as you have no doubt already have guessed, a similar fate befell the Model 39. It entered production in 1939 and continued to be produced until 1941, but owing to the poor state of Italian industry even at the best of times, it never entered mass manufacturing, and instead was only ever produced at an absolute trickle pace during this brief window. As for the exact size of said trickle, precise production figures are hard to come by, but we do know that come July 1942, the Army only had 100 in its ENTIRE inventory – and that was from an initial order of 10,000. As for how it worked, it used a short recoil action – a mechanism where the barrel and bolt are moved backward together by the force of the recoil for a short distance after firing, and then separate, with the barrel stopping while the bolt or slide continues to the rear to complete the cycling process and put another round into battery. That's pretty normal all things considered, and you'll find plenty of WWII vintage firearms that use that kind of action, although it tends to be pistols such as the M1911 or P38, semi-auto rifles that use it are MUCH rarer, with most from the period, such as the M1 Garand, Gewehr 43, and SVT-40, all using some form of gas-operated action instead – which use the propellent gas of a discharged cartridge to actuate a mechanical device that cycles the action. What is REALLY weird however is how you cock it, because its charging handle is also its front sling mount, so to charge it, rather than grabbing a handy dandy lever poking out the side and tugging on it, you instead must depress a locking button that normally keeps the sling mount locked in place, then yank it back using the sling – which opens the bolt. This is a REALLY bizarre way of doing it, and it also leads to the rifle having a totally flush receiver. The rest of it, however, is pretty normal. It has a sight that is adjustable for ranges up to 500 metres, and feeds from normal Carcano clips that are inserted whole into the rifle and drop out of a slot in the bottom of the magazine when emptied. Using the same clips as a Carcano also meant that it used the same rounds, either 6.5×52mm or 7.35×51mm – with examples chambered for both having been made. And that's pretty much all there is to say about it, at least within the confines of this article. Sadly, no one on the team has ever come across one of these in a museum, so we have no recommendations of where you can definitely see one for yourself – although, SUPPOSEDLY, the Carabinieri Police Museum in Rome has one, but we couldn't confirm this. ## The MG13 Next, we have the **MG13**, a German short recoil light machine gun made by taking the earlier Dreyse Model of 1918, a HEAVY water-cooled weapon, and, to simplify a bit, yanking all of the water-cooled gubbins off to make an air-cooled version. This was done in 1928, and two years later it was formally accepted into service with the Reichswehr, the Army of the Weimar Republic. It was part of a clandestine effort to modernise German infantry equipment, which is exactly why it is the first gun we have looked at so far which doesn't have a name that (roughly) matches up with either its year of development, or its year of adoption. By calling it the MG13, the Germans reasoned that the victorious powers would look at their other weapons, such as the MG08 machine gun, which was adopted in 1908, and the G98 rifle, adopted all the way back in 1898, and just naturally write the MG13 off as an old pre-WWI machine gun of some kind; at least on the paperwork anyway – the countries in question weren't fools, they'd be well aware the second they took a look at one. It soon found itself replaced by the MG34, a veritable Rolls Royce of a machine gun, and arguably the first EVER true general purpose machine gun in 1934 – which, incidentally, was also in development since before the Bad Moustache Man came to power in 1933; a happy little accident that just so happened to be perfectly timed for his rearming schemes. So, in that case then, what gives? Just what is the MG13 doing on this list of lesser-known WWII guns since it was replaced before the war broke out? Well, it turns out that the Austrian armband enthusiast's rearmament plans needed such an insane amount of machine guns, that German industry simply couldn't keep up with the demand, and so, despite having long since been officially replaced, the MG13 soldiered on in service. Initially, this was with everyone, even frontline troops, who used it during the Invasions of both France and Poland. It was eventually kicked back to second line units however as Germany's war economy got into full gear, and greater numbers of the MG34, and later the MG42 became available. It was also used in the Panzer I light tank, where two of them formed its main armament, although, the Panzer I, and the MG13s inside of it, were all but gone from frontline service come 1941. As for its design, the MG13 was actually a pretty smart bit of kit, incorporating several useful features to maximise its lethality on the battlefield. For starters, there was its 'double-crescent trigger,' which enabled both fully automatic and single shot firing from the exact same trigger, without the need to mess about with any switches or levers – just squeeze the top finger indentation and you'd only get a single shot, then move your finger down an inch and press down on the lower finger indentation and the MG13 would let rip and give it the business. And if you are wondering exactly what round it sent downrange, that'd be 7.92×57mm Mauser – the standard German rifle and machine gun round of both world wars. Further to that, other smart, but less unique features included: an integrated folding bipod that made it both easier to transport and less likely to get snagged on things as it was moved around the battlefield, a carry handle on the top, so that a gunner could quickly get on their feet and grab it if they needed to scarper, a barrel that could be quickly swapped in combat to enable sustained fire without any water-cooling mechanism, and a folding stock – which was handy indeed if one was fighting up close and personal, and wished to 'Rambo it.' One thing that was less smart however, given how the MG13 was made with sustained fire in mind, was the fact that it was magazine fed rather than belt fed. Given the fact that it used 25 round magazines, and had a rate of fire of 600(ish) rounds per minute, this would mean that if you kept your finger depressed on the lower trigger, it would empty a magazine in a mere 2.5 seconds, at which point firing would have to cease until a fresh one could be stuck in – although it did at least have a bolt hold open mechanism so that it didn't need to be re-cocked. Compare that to something belt fed like the MG34 that replaced it however, where if you were dug in and needed to lay down some heavy fire, you were able to simple attach multiple belts together and keep fire up to your heart's content (barring changing the barrel)… and you can see the problem. If you want to know where you can see one of these, don't worry, despite being lesser known, they REALLY aren't rare – head to basically any half decent WWII or armaments museum and they'll probably have at least one knocking about. ## The MP3008 For our final lesser-known weapon of WWII we have THIS, the **MP3008**, a German submachine gun produced right at the tail end of WWII. If you happen to be thinking this one looks just a tad familiar, don't worry, you have good reason for your suspicions, as it is a near direct copy of the British Sten, just with its magazine well rotated to be pointing downwards, rather than out to the side. The rationale behind it was simple enough: the war was going really, REALLY badly for Germany, and as the walls began caving in, they needed something cheap and cheerful they could put into the hands of all of the old men and children that were being conscripted into the ranks of the Volkssturm; a militia that, to all intents and purposes, is roughly equivalent to the British Home Guard, which you are likely more familiar with, and if you aren't familiar with it, that means you've never seen the incredible classic British sitcom Dad's Army – and so consider watching it your homework for after this article! But we digress… Strictly speaking, the MP3008 was a Mauser weapon, as they were the ones who reversed engineered the Sten to create it in early 1945, but to describe it as a true 'Mauser weapon,' in the way we would say a K98K rifle, isn't quite correct. Because while the K98K was a Mauser design that had production outsourced in a way that saw STRICT quality controls to ensure that every rifle pumped out matched Mausers own in house standards, thus making it a moot point where it was actually made, the MP3008's blueprints were instead hurled at anyone who had a lathe going spare, with vague instructions to the extent of "yeah whatever just make it go bang and pump it out we really don't care." We really do mean ANYONE too, with surviving records showing that everyone from local mechanics, through to enthusiast metal workers with a tool shed, were given orders to manufacture them. This led to a HUGE variety in their appearance, with MP3008s documented over the years featuring everything from wooden stocks, to solid metal stocks, to wire metal stocks, to no stocks at all. Beyond just the stock however, they can also be found with pistol grips, normal Sten like grips, and sometimes even no clear grip at all. Really, any and every weird way you could think of making one of these was probably done at some point. As for how it worked, it was blowback operated, which we are now VERY familiar with, and fired from an open bolt. It was chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum, the standard submachine gun round of the German military, just to keep its logistics nice and easy, and for this same reason, it also was designed to take standard 32 round MP40 box magazines. As for its rate of fire, most sources put it in the 450(ish) rounds per minute sort of range. Unfortunately, we ultimately have no idea how many of these were made. Due to the rushed and hap hazard nature of its production, the documentation needed to give full production figures was simply was never made in the first place, never mind surviving to this day. Most historians however, when pushed, will usually give a figure in the region of 10,000 or so. Despite this, a fair few survive, and typically, there is at least one in most western countries' BIG armaments museums. For example, we've seen one in the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, England – but unfortunately, did not take a picture to be able to show you. ## Key Takeaways - The Orița M1941 submachine gun was designed by Romania to reduce dependence on German imports. - The Danuvia 39M/43M submachine gun used a powerful but niche 9×25mm Mauser cartridge. - The Armaguerra Mod. 39 semi-automatic rifle had a unique charging handle integrated with the sling mount. - The MG13 light machine gun was initially used by German frontline troops due to high demand. - The MP3008 submachine gun was a rushed copy of the British Sten, produced by various manufacturers. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the Orița M1941? The Orița M1941 is a submachine gun designed by Captain Marin Orița of the Romanian Army in 1941 and entered service in 1943. It was designed to reduce dependence on imported weapons and was inspired by German and Italian submachine guns. ### How does the Orița M1941 operate? The Orița M1941 uses a blowback cycling system with an open bolt. It fires by pulling the bolt to the rear, where it is held by a sear. Pulling the trigger releases the sear, allowing the bolt to fly forward, pick up a round, and discharge it. The gases from the fired cartridge push the bolt back to repeat the cycle. ### What are the key features of the Danuvia 39M/43M? The Danuvia 39M/43M is a Hungarian submachine gun designed by Pál Király. It uses a blowback cycling open bolt design and fires the 9×25mm Mauser cartridge. The 43M variant has a folding metal stock, shortened barrel, and a forward-angled barrel for paratroopers and mechanized infantry. ### What is the Armaguerra Mod. 39? The Armaguerra Mod. 39 is an Italian semi-automatic rifle designed in 1938 by Gino and Mario Revelli. It was intended to replace the Carcano bolt-action rifle but never entered mass production due to the poor state of Italian industry. ### How does the Armaguerra Mod. 39 cock its bolt? The Armaguerra Mod. 39 has a unique charging handle that doubles as the front sling mount. To cock the rifle, you depress a locking button and yank the sling mount back to open the bolt. ### What is the MG13? The MG13 is a German short recoil light machine gun developed in 1928 by modifying the Dreyse Model of 1918. It was designed to be an air-cooled version of the water-cooled Dreyse machine gun and was used extensively during the early years of WWII. ### What are the unique features of the MG13? The MG13 features a 'double-crescent trigger' for both fully automatic and single-shot firing, an integrated folding bipod, a carry handle, a quick-swap barrel, and a folding stock. It is magazine-fed with 25-round magazines and fires the 7.92×57mm Mauser round. ### What is the MP3008? The MP3008 is a German submachine gun produced at the end of WWII. It is a near-direct copy of the British Sten, with the magazine well rotated downward. It was designed to be cheap and quickly produced for the Volkssturm militia. ### How was the MP3008 produced? The MP3008 was produced in a rushed and haphazard manner, with blueprints given to anyone with a lathe. This led to a wide variety of appearances, including different stocks, grips, and overall designs. ### What ammunition does the MP3008 use? The MP3008 is chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum and uses standard 32-round MP40 box magazines. It has a rate of fire of approximately 450 rounds per minute. ## Sources - [Original Side Projects video: Five Lesser-Known WWII Guns](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXdexlgnP3U) ## Related Coverage